The Struggle
by Mattis A Forti
Summary: Tradegy strikes for Elizabeth Mitchell and her son Neal, when a family is murdered. And the agent investigating is none other than Peter Burke. AU.
1. Chapter 1

AN: _This is an Alternate Universe. Very AU._  
AN 2:_I haven't have had anyone beta this, so all the mistakes are mine. Sorry :(_  
AN 3: _Elizabeth's last name is Mitchell, because that is her name maiden name. _

Summary:_Tradegy strikes for Elizabeth Mitchell and her son Neal, when a family is murdered. And the agent investiagting is none other than Peter Burke_

Neal – 12 yrs.

I am dead. I had lost track of time. Again. And now, without a doubt my mother, Elizabeth Mitchell would kill me.

Maybe if I hadn't been late this entire week, she wouldn't get too mad. Maybe if I hadn't promised her that I wouldn't be late before I left, she would let me off the hook. Maybe if I wasn't an hour late she wouldn't have even realized. But, maybe wasn't the case.

"Ummm…. Hey Dave, I need to go home now." I stated, as I edged towards the door.

"Oh? Uh I guess we can finish the movie later?" He replied. He was watching his phone more than the movie, but whatever.

"See ya."

I raced as fast as I could home. It was only 2 blocks away, but I don't think my mom cared if I was 1 hr late or 1 hr and 9 min.

When I got through the front door, my mom had enveloped me into bear hug. I knew she worried when I was late but it seemed odd for this much affection, I could feel her tears dropping on my head.

"Mom?" I asked "What's going on?"

She didn't reply, she just took my face in her hands, kissed my cheek and led to me a couch.

Sitting on the beige couch next to her, I didn't say anything. I was getting really worried. What was going on?

"Honey," She started. "There was an accident."

I gaped at her, not sure what to expect. What happened? Who? Why didn't Mom come to pick me up if it was serious? Was everyone ok? But as these thoughts were racing through my head I couldn't bring myself to ask any of them. It killed me not to know, but it terrified me to find out.

I think Mom was waiting for me to wrap my head around it, because she just waited after that.

I leaned towards my mother, wanting the physical affection I often complained about so much nowadays. She wrapped her arm around me, bring me in close. I was getting very worried.

"Mom," I whispered.

"It's Aunt Ellen. She was killed honey," Mom whispered back, her voice breaking

I looked up towards her. "No. No. No." I shook my eyes as I looked into my mom's blue eyes that were identical to my own. Looking into them I saw that this was not some kind of sick joke.

"Why didn't you come and get me?" I asked as I buried my face into her shoulder. I felt her head rest on top of mine. I could also feel her tears steady pace.

"The police just left baby," Mom replied. "I am so sorry,"

I didn't say anything. I just buried my face deeper. A few tears leaked through.

My mom and I just sat there for I don't even know how long. We just sat there in each other's arms finding solace only with each other.

My aunt had died. My mother's sister. The only person in this entire world, I would trust with all my secrets. The strongest, and most adventurist person I know. She was gone. And I would be damned if I didn't know exactly what happened, and didn't find justice for my Aunt.


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: I have no idea, how in real life murder cases work, and how they do things so I am going to make this up. If something is really bothering you, tell me and I will try to make it more realistic._

_AN 2: Thank you for all of your reviews, or following/favouriting my story. Means a lot :D _

After a long restless night, I finally made my way down the stairs and to the kitchen, which was where I saw my Mom sitting on a chair at the table staring into nothingness. Like me, she was still in her robe, and her hair pulled up into a messy ponytail. The way she was staring into space, seemed as if either help all the answers to the earth but at the same time she wasn't even looking.

_What should I say?_

I made my way over to her, careful to walk a bit louder than necessary to alert her of my presence. I sat on the chair next to her, slightly leaning against her.

I decided to ask questions about technical facts, not feelings and what not. I don't think I could handle that right now.

"When are we going to pick up Aunt Len's stuff?" I enquired.

Mom sighed, she sounded weary and tenacious as if what she would say could potentially cause uproar.

"I don't know baby," She started. "But probably not right away."

"Why? Wait, how did she…?" I said, not completely sure how to ask.

Mom put her arms securely around my body and pulled me in. Leaning against my head she whispered "It was a murder, baby boy. "

"WHAT?!" I practically yelled, trying to bounce up but Mom's arms kept me in place.

"I will tell you everything I know. Ellen was murdered at her home, police are checking everything out. They can't say anything right now, but I am going to call them in 30 min to find some answers." Mom pretty much said it all in one breath.

I kissed her cheek, and detangled myself from her. I muttered breakfast and went to make myself some cereal. I needed time to think. If it was in her home, it was probably targeted for her. Aunt Ellen used to be a cop in Missouri, butit near impossible to track Aunt Len down. They would have wanted revenge bad. I kept on thinking what happened, and nearly jumped out of my skin when Mom called my name. I looked up and tried to fake a smile. I took a deep breath and focused on the task at hand. Cereal.

While I was trying to force down a bowl, Mom left the room to call the police. Once I finally finished what felt like the never ending bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats, my Mom walked in, her face ashen.

I stared at her. Wondering why I couldn't voice the thought that felt was playing on repeat in my head. _What happened?_

After what felt like hours, but in reality was only a minute or two, Mom whispered "The feds are handling the case now. What the hell did Ellen get into?" The last part was barely audible but was the loudest in the room.

**Peter's POV**

Ellen Mitchell. They were pretty sure that she had some information on the art heist that had occurred recently. She had just started coming around with information , and the day after she is found dead in her home. _What a surprise._

They didn't know much about Ellen Mitchell, the first time finding bout her they only knew her full name, and that she had served as a cop in Missouri, her house address. Majority of her life was a big gaping hole.

Suddenly, Diana walked in with a file.

"Tell me that's information on Mitchell." He pleaded, half jokingly, half serious.

"You got it, boss." Diana smirked. "It shows some of her work done in Missouri. Also it turns out that Mitchell has a family, and a sister that lives quite close."

"No," Peter said while grabbing the file from Diana. Scanning through, he saw the name of Ellen's sister and a picture of them together. It was Elizabeth Mitchell.

"Holy crap," he breathed.


	3. Chapter 3

Peter's POV

Leaning back on my desk chair, I pondered on the question that had been bugging me all day, how come Ellen Mitchell's name never came up in Elizabeth Mitchell? There was no way that he could have missed it, he had read her file from top to bottom when trying to ask her out on a date.

Ellen was supposed to have information on _Filch._

Filch was their newest thief always leaving little notes with "helpful" little sentences or quotes about making this world a better place or understanding one another. He reminded a lot of the agents of Atticus Finch and left a few of his quotes behind, but that is where the similarities end between those two. While Atticus is kind and gentle-hearted, Filch is cruel and disgusting. He is extremely violent in his crimes, leaving people injured and even killed once. So they decided to call him a mix of Finch and Belch—Filch. Ironically, Filch also means to steal.

On one of the pieces of paper that Filch left was glued on to a piece of paper that once recovered looked like a list of phone numbers, with one circled. At the top of the list it said NEED TO FIND HER in red. They were suspecting that he didn't expect them to recover the list because looking at it, it didn't look glued and it took very much skill and chemicals to recover the list. All the phone numbers that were crossed out and could read were not in order, but the one that was circled just happened to one Ms. Ellen Mitchell's.

They had searched Ellen up in the database but not been able to recover much about her life, as far as they knew she had lived in Missouri, and was a cop there. On her file it said that she left when she was around 40 years old and she just kind of fell off the map since then. Her life before she became a cop was also non-existent. Comparing her and Elizabeth's file it showed that around the time that Elizabeth fell off the map, was the same time as Ellen. Who are these sisters?

Neal POV

The silence that ensued after that statement was both the quietest and loudest silence of all times. It was silent enough that your thoughts seemed so loud and blaring, and almost as if you could hear the other person's thoughts, but if a pin dropped it would be like an earthquake erupting.

_"So…" _I said, needing to say something before my thoughts caused my demise.

_"_A needle pulling thread," Mom chuckled. So, happiness could still exist in this weird world that we now lived in! Hurrah, a victory, a tiny victory but a victory none the less.

"Funny," I replied with a scowl, but couldn't put any sarcasm or anger in it that I usually would. It just wouldn't work and I knew Mom knew that by the sad smile that she gave me in return_._

"What are we going to do about….._this?__" _I wave my arms around the kitchen as if to represent everything: Aunt Len's things, house body and funeral. I knew what "this" was but I couldn't bring myself to say out loud because it would make it all more real and listening to those words from my mouth would be a dagger to my already pierced heart.

"_We _are not going to do anything today. I am going to wait a few days for the FBI to contact us, if they don't by then, I will contact them and make the necessary a-arrangements from there. How about we spend a quiet day at home or at the park today, eh?"

I knew that my Mom needed the quiet and slight normality right now, so I didn't push her into doing what I felt was right. I gave her a slight smile and nodded. I fell onto the couch while Mom began rifling through our movies; the next two and a half hours were spent watching a pointless yet kind of funny chick flick. It was a quiet and peaceful, but neither my mom nor myself could be entertained by the movie. There were just too many thoughts floating around in our minds.

Peter's POV

As I leaned back in my large desk chair, my hands fiddling with the file, I began pondering through different approached to use. I could wait it out and wait for more information, talk to Elizabeth, maybe go back to the Ellen's house, or even try to find information on the other numbers. Only one option seemed like the most productive thing to do, so with that in my head, I grabbed my keys and left the building.

**AN: Ok sorry for the really long wait, what can I say? My life is pretty busy right now and I've actually had this done for a while now, just didn't have time to update. Anyways sorry and thank you for the reviews. **


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